Riot accidentally leak League of Legends update 9.1 – patch notes
Riot Games might have accidentally leaked the patch notes for the next League of Legends update.
The next major update isn’t expected to hit the live servers until the start of the new season in January, but preliminary patch notes were accidentally published early by Riot Games.
Though it’s worth noting that the update could still be subject to change, the notes give an idea of the areas Riot are currently focusing on and the direction certain champions will be taking.
Patch 9.1 will be the first update of the new season. While the current pre-season patch has already implemented some of the more major changes, 9.1 will address any big changes Riot still wish to make heading into 2019 and the start of the new ranked season.
The most significant changes come to Kalista, Ornn, and Sejuani, all of whom Riot have identified as historically having been more powerful in professional play than they are in the less coordinated realm of the online ranked queues.
Several other heroes have received more minor balance adjustments, however, as have Runes and Jungle items.
The hero changes can be seen below.
Kalista
Base AD, AD growth, attack speed growth increased; W Oathsworn AD bonus removed. Q damage increased. E deals less damage to epic monsters.
When we say “Kalista”, League vets immediately think “nerfed because of pro play”. It’s been a minute since we’ve tried to shift her strength toward less team-coordination-dependent power, but we’re taking a fresh stab at it here. Kalista’s offensive strength is no longer tied to being near her Oathsworn and her ability to turn Rend into a better Smite is greatly diminished. In return, she’s gaining a bunch of personal power she can use in any situation.
Base Stats
BASE ATTACK DAMAGE: 62 ⇒ 67
ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH: 3.6 ⇒ 4
ATTACK SPEED GROWTH: 3.5% ⇒ 4%
Q – Pierce
BASE DAMAGE: 10/70/130/190/250 ⇒ 20/85/150/215/280
W – Sentinel
REMOVED: OATHSWORN EMPOWERMENT – Kalista no longer gains 5/10/15/20/25 attack damage while her Oathsworn is nearby
E – Rend
NEW: WEAK GRIP – Rend now deals 50% damage to epic monsters
Ornn
Base durability increased. Ornn’s items upgrade at lv13 (2 max); he can upgrade one ally’s item per lv at lv14+. More upgrades added. Q cost, damage, slow decreased. W doesn’t shield but makes Ornn unstoppable. R slow, knockup decreased.
While Ornn doesn’t have as lengthy a track record of competitive problems as Kalista, he’s similarly shown much stronger results in pro play. He wins basically every top lane matchup, making him a safe choice in any comp, and his ult locks enemies down from a distance so allies can clean up the kill without Ornn actually having to do his job as a tank. We’re reducing these strengths and investing that power into Ornn’s passive. Switching to a free upgrade system gives Ornn a unique ability to jump-start the item scaling of both himself and his team: rather than delaying progress toward full builds, upgrading an item is now pure upside.
Base Stats
HEALTH GROWTH: 90 ⇒ 95
BASE HEALTH REGEN: 1.4 ⇒ 1.8
HEALTH REGEN GROWTH: 0.14 ⇒ 0.18
ARMOR GROWTH: 3 ⇒ 4
BASE ATTACK DAMAGE: 67 ⇒ 69
Passive – Living Forge
NEW: CALLOUSED HANDS – Ornn now gains 10% additional armor and magic resist from items
NEW: TRADE KNOWLEDGE – At level 13, any upgradable item Ornn owns or purchases for the rest of the game is upgraded for free (Ornn can have up to two upgraded items)
NEW: BENEFACTOR – At each level from 14 onward, Ornn can upgrade one of his ally’s upgradable items by getting within 600 range of them and clicking on them (allies can only have one upgraded item)
REMOVED: PURCHASE ORDER – Ornn and his allies can no longer pay to upgrade their items
NEW: ITEMS – Ornn can upgrade new items! Bonuses listed below:
Frozen Fist
ARMOR 65 ⇒ 95
MANA 500 ⇒ 700
Youmuu’s Wraithblade
ATTACK DAMAGE 55 ⇒ 75
LETHALITY 18 ⇒ 25
Might of the Ruined King
ATTACK DAMAGE 40 ⇒ 55
ATTACK SPEED 25% ⇒ 40%
Luden’s Pulse
ABILITY POWER 90 ⇒ 120
MANA 600 ⇒ 850
Q – Volcanic Rupture
COST 55 mana ⇒ 45 mana
BASE DAMAGE 20/50/80/110/140 ⇒ 20/45/70/95/120
SLOW 40/45/50/55/60% ⇒ 40% at all ranks
W – Bellows’ Breath
REMOVED: SHIELD – No longer shields Ornn for 80/125/170/215/260 (+0.4 bonus armor)(+0.4 bonus magic resist)
NEW: UNSTOPPABLE – Ornn is now unstoppable during W
COOLDOWN: 14 seconds ⇒ 12 seconds
DURATION: 1 second (ticks every 0.2 seconds ) ⇒ 0.75 seconds (ticks every 0.15 seconds)
SELF-SLOW: 50% ⇒ 35%
BRITTLE PROC DAMAGE: 7%-12% target’s maximum health (levels 1-18) ⇒ 12%-20.5% target’s maximum health (levels 1-18)
E – Searing Charge
COST: 50 mana at all ranks ⇒ 35/40/45/50/55 mana
NEW: JUST A LITTLE LONGER – If a Q pillar is about to expire when Ornn casts E, it now lasts until Ornn’s dash completes
R – Call of the Forge God
FIRST CAST SLOW: 40/60/80% ⇒ 10% scaling up to 40/60/80% based on distance travelled
SECOND CAST KNOCKUP: 1.5 seconds on all enemies hit ⇒ 1 second on the first enemy hit, 0.5 seconds on enemies hit past the first
Sejuani
Base durability increased. Passive grants less stats but lasts longer. Q damage increased. W2 damage increased but slow falls off immediately. E deals more damage but range and stun decreased.
Third in our “powerful in pro, weak in regular” lineup is Sejuani. The broad angle of approach for these changes is ‘reduce crowd control and increase damage’ to make Sejuani’s success less dependent on ally follow-up (or set-up in the case of melee allies priming E). We’re also reducing Frost Armor’s massive spike of defenses to extend its duration and give Sejuani more baseline durability. This ties Sejuani’s responsibility of soaking damage less to perfectly-coordinated teamfight initiation, enabling her to better tank for her team throughout extended (and perhaps messier) combat.
Base Stats
HEALTH GROWTH: 88 ⇒ 105
BASE ARMOR: 31 ⇒ 34
ARMOR GROWTH: 3 ⇒ 4.25
BASE MAGIC RESIST: 27.1 ⇒ 32.1
MAGIC RESIST GROWTH: 0.75 ⇒ 1.25
ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH: 3 ⇒ 4
Passive – Frost
Armor
BONUS RESISTANCES: 20/70/120 armor and magic resist (+100% total armor and magic resist) ⇒ 20 armor and magic resist (+25% total armor and magic resist)
LINGER: 2 seconds ⇒ 3 seconds
Q – Arctic Assault
BASE DAMAGE: 60/90/120/150/180 ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240
W – Winter’s Wrath
SECOND HIT BASE DAMAGE: 30/65/100/135/170 ⇒ 30/70/110/150/190
SECOND HIT SLOW DURATION: Is now removed immediately after 0.25 seconds
E – Permafrost
STUN DURATION: 1/1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4 seconds ⇒ 1 second at all ranks
RANGE: 850 ⇒ 600
DAMAGE: 20/35/50/65/80 ⇒ 40/80/120/160/200 (Icebreaker damage upon shattering a stunned target unchanged)
Ashe
E grants assists if enemies were previously unseen.
We’re adding some personal reward for Hawkshots that enable Ashe’s team to lock down a kill. (The Q change is a quality of life improvement.)
Q – Ranger’s Focus
HEY! – Ability icon border now flashes when Q is castable at max stacks
E – Hawkshot
I HELPED: Ashe now gains assist credit if a previously-unseen enemy is killed within 10 seconds of being revealed by Hawkshot
Aurelion Sol
Q can be recast earlier.
When we made Aurelion squishier toward the end of last year, he was tearing up the top of the ladder while having little impact in regular levels of play. Now that the Starforger has room for a survivability buff, we want to flatten that skill discrepancy a bit. This change is powerful across the board, but it’ll disproportionately help new and average Aurelion players who haven’t yet mastered his ranges or matchups.
Q – Starsurge
RECAST LOCKOUT: 0.65 seconds ⇒ 0.25 seconds
Jinx
W cast time now scales with attack speed.
Helping Zap!’s cast time keep up with Jinx so casting it mid- or late-game doesn’t feel like as much of a standstill. (Even though it still definitionally is.)
W – Zap!
CAST TIME: 0.6 seconds ⇒ 0.6 – 0.4 seconds, based on attack speed (caps at 250% bonus attack speed, including bonus from Q – Switcheroo!)
Jayce
Q+E combo can now be buffered.
E – Acceleration Gate
BUFFERING: If Jayce casts Acceleration Gate during Q – Shock Blast‘s cast time, he’ll now ignore movement commands until both abilities have been cast
Katarina
E teleports immediately; cast time now entirely post-teleport. Hextech Gunblade’s active can be buffered.
These changes make Katarina feel more responsive to play without stripping away her opponents’ ability to react to her decisions.
E – Shunpo
CAST TIME: 0.075 seconds before teleporting and 0.075 seconds after teleporting ⇒ 0.15 seconds after teleporting (Katarina now teleports immediately upon pressing E)
BUFFERING: Katarina can now buffer Hextech Gunblade’s active to fire after Shunpo’s cast time completes
Nasus
Q stacks from large kills increased.
We’re increasing the reward good Nasus players earn for prioritizing last-hits on big stuff. This doesn’t affect stacks from smaller units, so the big dog’s gotta land those cannons to make use of this buff.
Q – Siphoning Strike
LARGE KILL STACKS – 6 per champion, large minion, or large monster kill ⇒ 12 per champion, large minion, or large monster kill
Sivir
Champion hits don’t reduce Q’s damage.
Buffing the dream Q that hits all five enemy champions in a teamfight.
Q – Boomerang Blade
DAMAGE FALLOFF: Hitting an enemy champion no longer decreases Boomerang Blade’s damage against subsequent targets (tooltip will be updated in 9.2)
Vayne
Q cooldown reduced while R is active.
PLACEHOLDER
R – Final Hour
NEW: KEEP ROLLIN – Tumble’s cooldown is reduced by 50% while Final Hour is active (reminder: Tumble’s cooldown doesn’t start until Vayne fires the empowered attack)
Xayah
E root duration increased.
We’re upping Xayah’s ability to keep enemies where she wants them.
E – Bladecaller
ROOT DURATION: 1 second ⇒ 1.25 seconds
Zyra
Q+W and E+W combos can now be buffered.
W – Rampant Growth
BUFFERING: If Zyra casts Rampant Growth during Q – Deadly Spines‘ or E – Grasping Roots‘ cast times, she’ll now ignore movement commands until both abilities have been cast
The full patch notes can be read here.